Kellogg's wants you to share your breakfast

If you show or tell what you're eating, the cereal company will donate breakfasts to children who don't always get it.

The ideal breakfast for a child is not a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats (although there are certainly worse cereals a child could eat). But, for the one in four children in this country who goes without breakfast, a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats, or any other cereal, is much better than nothing.

Kellogg’s wants to give away 1 million breakfasts to those children who don’t usually get breakfast, and the company is giving us an easy way to make that happen. Through July 31, 2011, the Kellogg’s Share Your Breakfast campaign will give one free breakfast to a school child in need (up to 1 million) for each person who shares a photo, a description or a text about their breakfast.

I’m often torn by campaigns like this: A wealthy food company donates money or food to the hungry only if consumers help spread the word. Kellogg’s could easily donate the breakfasts without the help of consumers. It would cost the company a lot less to do so. The fine print at the end of the above video says that the 1 million breakfasts are the equivalent of $200,000. Clearly, that amount of money is nothing to a company as large as Kellogg’s. It probably cost one-fourth of that amount to create the video.

While Kellogg’s is doing a good thing by donating breakfasts, the company is also getting a lot of recognition and free press — including this piece I’m writing. The company will also get up to 1 million people to visit its website.

Still, I shared a description of my breakfast this morning (whole wheat toast with peanut butter and an apple). I wasn’t required to give any personal information or even my e-mail address, which I appreciated.

What’s your take on campaigns like this? As a consumer, do you participate in them or ignore them?